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Detroit, 4:12 PM
Sun Nov 22
11 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/20/09
[www.youtube.com]
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Would I strap in on that bad rascal? You betcha. Sign me up.
What's the mission plan on this thing? I actually haven't been reading up on it.
Also, hello? If you're going to call the spacecraft Orion, shouldn't there be about forty-leven nuclear warheads underneath it? I understand that though the efficiency is really pretty low, the thrust is nonetheless something to see. Through sunglasses.
10/27/09
10/27/09
Do you guys really think the people at NASA are so dumb that they'd go through with an unnecessary flight test that costs tens of millions of dollars and took engineers years to setup? #spacelopnik
10/27/09
This is the most basic of visibility acts by NASA. It's practically guaranteed success, it's pretty cheap, they've made it very visible, and probably really doesn't mean much to the engineers working there. #spacelopnik
10/27/09
10/27/09
But this launch carries with it about 600 sensors that will test integrated systems and first partial stage launch dynamics. Calling this a "promo" flight is missing the mark by a wide margin. #spacelopnik
10/27/09
I've known NASA people for 40 years, having grown up in the Cape Canaveral area, and NASA does not do "promo" flights. Also, success is NOT guaranteed - the people at NASA have learned the hard way not to take success for granted. There's more riding on this than you might think. Certainly there's a publicity aspect to this launch, but there's also a very real risk - an accident or failure of the Ares would be at the least highly embarrassing and probably would call future funding into question. #spacelopnik
10/27/09
That's pretty cynical of you. Several millions dollars, a not-insignificant portion of which literally goes up in smoke during the launch, and you dismiss the launch as a publicity stunt?
Proxmire was the worst thing to happen to the American space program. No, I take that back: safety by committee with a strong emphasis on proof-of-risk and the value of the flight vs. risk was the worst thing - Challenger was a disaster that was completely avoidable, except the beancounters insisted that another delay would be too expensive (how much did that Shuttle cost, anyway?). Proxmire's standpoint was merely that the space program was expensive and didn't yield much benefit on the ground.
Well, maybe, maybe not. But this planet's only so big. Wouldn't it be a smart idea to have humans living in more than just one little place? In the event of catastrophe, I mean.
Look much, much farther ahead than just this launch. It's not about publicity. It's about the next step. And the one after that. And the next one.
Fanatic? Not quite. True Believer?
Maybe. #spacelopnik
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[gizmodo.com]]
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Hey! Leave my lunch alone. It doesn't need scrubbing. #spacelopnik
10/27/09
Unfortunately the Ares I-X isn't the tallest rocket ever; the Saturn V was 363 ft tall, and the Soviet N-1 topped out at 344 (Jussayin) #spacelopnik
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But hopefully Ares will supersede it in that category.
10/27/09
[www.foxnews.com] #spacelopnik
10/27/09
@bmoreDLJ: Back in the late '50s and early '60s, NASA was considering a series of massive Nova rockets that would dwarf the Saturn V both in size and power. Some of the proposals exceeded 500 feet in height with more than twice the girth of the Saturn. They were designed for payloads as large as a million pounds. The idea was abandoned for both cost and practicality reasons. The whole Nova story can be found here:
[www.astronautix.com] #spacelopnik
10/27/09
@Ray Wert: You could have simplified things by stating that the I-X is the same height as Godzilla. Everyone would have understood it in those terms.
[www.visualaid-shop.com] #spacelopnik
10/27/09
The world's brightest minds, the Earth's biggest dollars, the civilisation's most incredible technologies all fuse together to push a gigantic machine and our proudest representatives out to this unquantifiable vacuum in pursuit not for profit but for the basic human instinct that is curiousity.
Go on, ladies and gentlemen, live long and prosper. #spacelopnik
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